Welcome to our Laboratory! No two days are the same on the coin hoard project, it’s all part of the fun; but here’s what we got up too on our day of archaeology.

Wednesday mornings always start the same, with an 8.30 meeting between the conservation team, our curator of archaeology, our museum’s registrar and our director of archives discussing the previous weeks work and any upcoming plans for the coin hoard.

Some of the team deep in discussion about the project

Usually after these meetings Georgia and I will head back to the lab to start the day’s coin removal process. We’re using a Faro metrology arm to record each coins position on the hoard mass to produce a 3D map that can eventually be linked to our database. It’s hoped this can help research in the future. It also produces laser scans that can have photographs superimposed and could even be 3D printed. It’s quite exciting stuff and we always look forward to seeing how many coins we’ll be able to remove that day.

However, this particular Wednesday we were scanner-less! Not to panic, it’s gone on a little holiday to Germany for its yearly service and should be back with us soon.

Our sad little scannerless tripod

This Wednesday was also slightly different from normal as we had a 9 am visit from the South Korean Ambassador. We offer these tours a lot now as the coin hoard project has become on of the things that visiting dignitaries to the island likes to see. It’s a chance for them to come behind the glass and enter the laboratory to see behind the scenes all of the work that is being undertaken to conserve the hoard.

The rest of the day was spent with conservation technicians and volunteers working on finished coins. This involves an array of tasks including; using a vibrating tip tool to remove excess corrosion, dry brushing the coins to remove any dust, writing up their final bags with object number and grid reference, inputting onto the database and photography.

Conservation Technician Georgia and one of our volunteers putting the coins on the database and writing their final bags

Additionally, our museum registrar, Val, and I are working on putting together some award applications for the coin hoard project and the afternoon was spent editing these for final approval. There were cookies at the end as a reward for getting through the four page document, and as you can see from the picture below the team is a big fan of brightly coloured infographics!

Registrar Val admiring the infographic

Our Museum Conservator also had an interesting day, he was visiting the museum of our neighbouring island of Guernsey and consulting with them about some material they have loaned from France.

There you have it! That pretty much concludes the Coin Crew’s day in archaeology! Who knows what tomorrow may bring. I’ll leave you with this picture of the conservation team in happier coin removal times!